Culture: Stated, Implied and it's Relation to Business
Why is the "Stated / Implied Culture" construct important for problem-solving leadership and, more importantly, business? Businesses are established to fulfill a need in a market place by providing a product and / or service. When a product and / or service is purchased, the resulting experience for the customer and / or client is presumably an exercise in problem-solving. The purchaser is parting with money in exchange for a resulting experience (the outcome of a product and / or service) that is quicker, better and cheaper than solving the problem alone, from scratch.
An organized social entity (society) design exclusively for the purpose of solving a problem in exchange for remuneration is a business. The culture of a business is the primary platform in which a society goes about the task of solving the problems of problem solving (for a market, client or customer). For a business to be successful, it must be able to solve the problems of its intended market. The business must also be able to manage and motivate its problem solving resources internally in such a way that successfully solves the problems of its external market. All of this requires group decision-making, which is inherently an exercise in cultural dynamics (the larger the group with greater the dynamics). Group decision-making can be a powerful tool in problem-solving, but prone to failure if not managed with leadership.
Originally published January 15, 2008